MPI’s The Netherlands Chapter has been awarded the Best Conference Award by Best Events Award (BEA) World for the innovative European Meetings and Events Conference 2019 (EMEC) in The Hague.
"It is such a great achievement of everyone involved in EMEC19 to be recognized as best conference at BEA world festival," says Gijs Verbeek, executive director of MPI's The Netherlands Chapter. "The competition was really strong and full of great cases. This award really is for all the volunteers and partners who made this event happen."
“We at MPI are extremely proud to have a community of event professionals who are an inspiration for innovation and professionalism,” adds Angeles Moreno, strategic development senior advisor for Europe. “The Netherlands chapter took the lead in designing and executing EMEC19 in The Hague, without a budget and with a team of dedicated volunteers. We admire that passion for an outstanding job.”
“The Netherlands chapter took the lead in designing and executing EMEC19 in The Hague, without a budget and with a team of dedicated volunteers. We admire that passion for an outstanding job.”
BEA World was founded in 2006 by the ADC Group to communicate the importance of events and conferences and has since become one of the most prestigious international event recognition initiatives to celebrate “the best creativity and innovation applied to events,” according to their website. It was the creativity and innovation of this year’s carefully-designed EMEC that caught BEA’s attention and secured the position of the best conference of 2019.
EMEC is a collaborative event put on by MPI and its partners—World Forum, The Hague and #TheHagueMarketing, Louwman Museum, B.V. Fokker, Terminal and others—where meeting professionals of Europe meet to experience and learn. The theme for EMEC ‘19 was “changing the game,” which MPI took to heart in creating the immersive design that proved to be a success with both the BEA and EMEC attendees. This innovative conference focused on changing the way meeting professionals meet, experience and learn by having attendees interact with one another throughout the entire conference. For instance, attendees had multiple opportunities for networking and took deep dives into one of seven interactive learning journeys, along with sessions and keynotes, that helped different parts of the industry learn from one another. The secret ingredient to the success of this conference was in the element of surprise with components such as a surprise youth choir, a hidden bar, and an escape room.
According to Moreno, EMEC was also a success because the event designers listened to the participants needs. “Each of the touch points was carefully designed and executed with maximum excellence,” she says.
Babs Nijdam, VP of Knowledge for The Netherlands Chapter, says the use of the Event Canvas gave the team a great process to focus the stakeholders and what change of behavior they wanted to achieve. "This gave us a clear structure of the conference that we could focus us.It was amazing to see how everyone, including partners such as World Forum, Fokker Terminal, Louwman Museum and The Hague Convention Bureau, were truly committed to make this conference a success. The teamwork and dedication of every single person was above and beyond."
The win for EMEC marks the second year in a row that MPI’s diligence in creating immersive and interactive conferences has garnered a prestigious award for an event. In 2018, MPI’s World Education Congress (WEC) won the Association Meeting Eventex Award due to its creativity, innovation and effectiveness. The exceptional hard work and passion that MPI has shown is sure to make successive events just as successful. Moreno hopes that this year’s recognition of the Netherlands chapter will be a “source of inspiration for all MPI members as well as for the meetings and events industry.”
